BrightSparks Projects

  • Creative Minds: Kettering

    Creative Minds: Kettering

    • Why let life take you seriously? Creative Minds comes to Kettering!

      Led by comedian and poet Rob Gee, these workshops involve all elements of comedy and humour: jokes, creative writing, comedy sketches, poetry, limericks, stand-up... all abilities are welcome and no experience is required. The workshops are a fun and relaxing way of using humour to improve our wellbeing.

    • Times: Tuesdays, 1st October to 19th Novemmber 2024
      Times TBC
    • Venue: Kettering Arts Centre, Lindsay Street, Kettering NN16 8RG
  • Humour Hub: Loughborough

    Humour Hub: Loughborough

    • Fun and relaxing workshops - no experience necessary, all abilities welcome! We make up stories, tell jokes and laugh a lot. No advance booking required - just turn up.

      Funded by the Getting Help in Neighbourhoods Grant Scheme in partnership with the NHS, Leicester City Council and Leicesterhsire County Council.

    • Times: Thursdays, 2.30 – 4pm, on the following dates:
      4th April to 16th May 2024
      20th June to 1st August 2024
      5th Sept to 17th October 2024
      21st Nov 2024 to 16th Jan 2025 (excluding 26th Dec and 2nd Jan)
    • Venue: Loughborough Wellbeing Centre, Asha House, 63 Woodgate, LE11 2TZ.
  • Humour Hub: Desford

    Humour Hub: Desford

    • Fun and relaxing workshops - no experience necessary, all abilities welcome! We make up stories, tell jokes and laugh a lot. No advance booking required - just turn up.

      Funded by the Getting Help in Neighbourhoods Grant Scheme in partnership with the NHS, Leicester City Council and Leicesterhsire County Council.

    • Times: Tuesdays 1.30 - 3pm on the following dates:
      7th May to 18th June 2024
      23rd July to 3rd Sept 2024
      8th Oct to 19th Nov 2024
      7th Jan to 18th Feb 2025
      18th March to 29th April 2025
    • Venue: Desford Library, Main St, Desford, LE9 9JP
  • Humour Hub: Melton Mowbray

    Humour Hub: Melton Mowbray

    • Fun and relaxing workshops - no experience necessary, all abilities welcome! We make up stories, tell jokes and laugh a lot. No advance booking required - just turn up.

      Funded by the Getting Help in Neighbourhoods Grant Scheme in partnership with the NHS, Leicester City Council and Leicesterhsire County Council.

    • Times: TBC
    • Venue: Welly's, Unit 7, The Old Dairy, North St, LE13 1NL

      Melton Space, details TBC
  • Humour Hub: Sileby

    Humour Hub: Sileby

    • Fun and relaxing workshops - no experience necessary, all abilities welcome! We make up stories, tell jokes and laugh a lot. No advance booking required - just turn up.

      Funded by the Getting Help in Neighbourhoods Grant Scheme in partnership with the NHS, Leicester City Council and Leicesterhsire County Council.

    • Times: Mondays, times TBC
    • Venue: TBC
  • Riverside Festival & BrightSparks Arts In Health Festival 2022

    Riverside Festival & BrightSparks Arts In Health Festival 2022

    • BrightSparks have an Arts in Health Festival as part of the Leicester Riverside Festival. This Year we are again in the Castle Gardens at the Maypole and have a wonderful list of activities and performances to smile the day away!
    • Times: Saturday 4th June and Sunday 5th June 2022
    • Venue: Riverside Festival, Castle Gardens, Leicester
  • The Comedy Asylum

    The Comedy Asylum

    • Because why let life take you seriously?

    • Times: Next show: Monopausal Werewolf in WIgston
      (Date TBC)
    • Venue: The Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, LE1 7HA

      Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.
  • Sounds Inclusive

    Sounds Inclusive

    • A National Lottery funded programme of projects to develop mental health service users as performing musicians and poets.
    • Times: Various
    • Venue: All over Leicester!
  • Annual Open Art Exhibitions

    Annual Open Art Exhibitions

    • This project has been running for ober 20 years and is a massively popular annual event that takes place in mainstream art galleries across the city, and then tours to our own exhibition spaces.
    • Times: Annually - Times vary
    • Venue: Venues Vary
  • The Recreational Hall

    The Recreational Hall

    • "The Rec Hall" -  a fantastic resource provided by the NHS at the bradgate mental health unit. It acts as a place where inpatients and out patients can get together and relax and get creative with arts and music.
    • Times: Various for different ctivities
    • Venue: The Recreational Hall, The Bradgate Unit, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, LE3 9DZ

More Projects

  • Music at the Mill

    Music at the Mill

    • Evaluation movie of the Music at the Mill, music in health, project delivered at the Mill Lodge mental health unit during 2019. Mill Lodge is a specialist in-patient unit run by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust for people with a diagnosis of Huntingdon's disease.

    • Times: various
    • Venue: Mill Lodge mental health unit
  • The BrightSparks Film & Poem

    The BrightSparks Film & Poem

    • The BrightSparks Film:  A poetic movie montage of the brightsparks group, the things we do and why it is so brilliant!
    • Times: Film Launch was 30th November 2018
    • Venue: Attenborough Arts Centre
  • Riverside and Weston Park Events

    Riverside and Weston Park Events

    • See the summary and evaluation video for the Smoothie and Fosse Misic Gigs at Riverside and Western Park Festival in Spring/ Summer 2018.
    • Times: Spring/Summer 2018
    • Venue: Riverside and Western Park Festivals
  • Comedy Asylum Sings

    Comedy Asylum Sings

    • Matt, Kirsty and our Musician Michael took us on an 8 week series of workshops in comedy singing and songwriting! We loved it!

      Video and Photos from Woody & Helen Rowe
    • Times: September - October 2018
    • Venue: The Exchange bar, Leicester
Over the many years that BrightSparks has been running, Tim, Lydia and the many others that have supported them, have delivered a huge number of projects both within the NHS and in partnership with other organisations.


The projects outlined on these pages are some of the more recent, and a selection from the past!